CROPS AND SOIL IMPROVEMENT 



half of this country will have production limited 

 by this deficiency unless applications of lime in 

 some form are made. When owners of soil that 

 remains rich in lime do not accept this statement, 

 no harm results, as their land does not need lime. 

 On the other hand are tens of thousands of land- 

 owners who do not recognize the need of lime that 

 now exists in their soils, and suffer a loss of income 

 which they would attribute to other causes. 



Irrational Use of Lime. Some refusal to ac- 

 cept the facts respecting soil acidity and its means 

 of correction is due to a prejudice that was created 

 by an unwise use of lime in the past. Owners of 

 stiff limestone soils learned in an early day that 

 a heavy application of caustic lime would increase 

 crop production. It caused such flocculation of 

 the fine particles in their stiff soils that physical 

 condition was improved, and it made the organic 

 matter in the soil quickly available as plant-food. 

 The immediate result was greater crop-producing 

 power in the soil, and dependence upon lime as a 

 fertilizer resulted. The vegetable matter was 

 used up, some of the more available mineral plant- 

 food was changed into soluble forms, and in the 

 course of years partial soil exhaustion resulted. 

 The heavy applications of lime, unattended by 



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